Page 25

Amari

When I returned from my visit with my family, I could sense a difference in Stefanos, he was silent as he put my mask, tail and collar on.

I looked around for the paw gloves but they weren’t there.

I didn’t think much of it until later that night, lying beside him when he didn’t touch me.

In the morning there was no more tasting or playing with his cum before breakfast.

It didn’t stop my hunger or ache between my legs.

There was a brooding silence the entire night and his hand was back to swirling the ice in his scotch.

I couldn’t understand what was happening because he wasn’t angry, but—indifferent.

By the third day, I had eaten my meals alone and fully clothed, sitting on a chair with a dinner plate on the table.

I toyed with the food because it felt wrong and the dread in my belly grew.

By the sixth day, I was almost begging for his rage, passion, and cruelty.

The cage was gone from his room, and he moved me into the spare bedroom, which he had taken me into to force me to dress as his human dog.

It was in this room he removed my collar without a word.

I whined and barked but he didn’t say a word.

He took my collar and left while I sank to the wooden floor, finally giving in to the tears as the door shut behind him.

In all this time he never gave me permission to speak nor did he explain why he no longer wanted me as his pet.

The longer this continued, the more I wanted to beg him to tell me why he was doing this? What did I do wrong? I was afraid to speak in case it became his last straw.

I glanced around the room, remembering the fear, shock, and horror of being turned into his dog, into ‘nothing’.

I wasn’t nothing when he made me feel every extreme emotion there was to feel.

He made me feel alive.

On the seventh day I walked behind him as he led me into his bedroom.

I saw a pile of white envelopes on his bed, they seemed bulky.

The room was silent, it was cruel to bring me into the room that was once my prison and my sanctuary—the one in which he brought me intense pain and pleasure.

I closed my eyes momentarily because there was no more time in the playroom or this bedroom.

When I opened my eyes, I noticed my dog collar on his bedside table, I twirled around to look for him, but he stood in the doorway of the bedroom observing me.

He looked away from me to the large window and strode across the room to stand there with his back to me.

I glanced at my collar again with my heart pounding in my chest.

He hadn't touched me in days.

Hadn't called me Skyla, pet or whore.

Hadn’t even looked at me the way he used to—like I was his possession and his obsession.

He stood tall with his broad shoulders silhouetted against the pale light of the setting sun.

The distance between us was unbearable and I couldn't take it anymore.

I opened my mouth to speak but he beat me to it by clearing his throat.

“There are three envelopes on the bed. Each of them releases my hold on what—my father left for you all. I will continue to oversee Alcina’s trust fund to ensure her portfolio continues to grow at a higher-than-market level,”

he said in a cold detached voice. “You may speak.”

“Master, why are you—”

I began to ask.

“I am no longer your Master,”

he snapped at me, his head turning, but he stopped to face the window again.

I gasped at his words, covering my mouth with my hand, unable to form a coherent thought let alone a sound. The silence stretched between us, heavy and suffocating until I took a hesitant step towards him.

“Stefanos, tell me what’s wrong? What did I do?”

I said beseeching him. “Why are you doing this?”

When he didn't speak, a whispered plea left me.

“Please.”

“It’s over Amari,”

he said, his voice emotionless yet his words cut through me like a blade.

“Why?”

I whispered, my voice barely audible.

He turned then, his face unreadable, his dark eyes devoid of the fire that had once burned for me.

“My revenge is complete. You are free to leave. Keith will be waiting downstairs to take you home in fifteen minutes.”

Each word hit me like a physical blow, knocking the air from my lungs.

I stared at him, my mind reeling, my heart shattering as reality sank in.

Everything he had done in the last week was for this. My legs buckled beneath me and I fell to the floor. I caught myself from slipping into the sorry pose.

“No, you can't. You can't just—just throw me away like this. Not after—not after—”

I said trying to speak but becoming overwrought as memory after memory flooded through me. It was like a movie reel of our time together.

“It’s done. We are done,”

he interrupted, his voice firm and final. “There is nothing more to say.”

I wanted to lash out at him, scream at him, to demand answers, but the distant, empty look in his eyes stopped me.

It stopped me because I wanted to keep the last vestige of pride left within me—even though my heart had shattered into a million pieces.

He was already closed off and had moved on.

I rose to my feet, shaking as I did, my eyes returning to the collar, and for a split second, considered taking it as a sick memento of what I was leaving behind.

I couldn't bring myself to touch it.

Instead, I turned and walked out of the room, holding my head high, ignoring the hot fat tears coursing down my cheeks. I no longer had a mask to hide away in.

As I stepped into the hallway, I paused, glancing back one last time.

Stefanos stood by the window, his back to me once more like I had already faded from his world.

At that moment, I realised the cruelest truth of all.

This was his final act of revenge and now he was done with me.

I truly was nothing to him.